For Brigitte and Michael’s engagement shoot, we spent time in the countryside around Cortona, using the peaceful setting of Le Terre dei Cavalieri as the starting point. Rather than building a sequence of poses, I let them walk, talk and enjoy the surroundings together, with their dog joining part of the session.
A pre-wedding shoot is also a valuable opportunity to become comfortable with the wedding photographer before the wedding day. As the session progresses, the camera gradually becomes less noticeable, leaving more space for natural gestures, laughter and the way Brigitte and Michael normally interact.
Le Terre dei Cavalieri is an eighteenth-century country estate set among the open landscapes of the Valdichiana, just outside Cortona. Its brick farmhouses, rural paths and cypress-lined roads reflect the character of the Tuscan countryside, while Cortona itself rises above a landscape shaped by fields, vineyards and olive groves.
I approached the session with the same observational style I use for wedding reportage, intervening only when necessary and allowing Brigitte and Michael’s connection to remain at the centre of the photographs. The Tuscan landscape provides a distinctive setting, but it is their relationship that gives the images their meaning.
